On a recent afternoon at the 49ers headquarters, the 51-year-old coach remembered being a kid in Houston, crying as he stood by the road outside his broken family’s home, trying to envision a better future. Watching the cars go by, he told himself, “One day, I’m going to be somebody.”

He remembered returning to football in 2003, ending an 11-year hiatus that he took to help rear his seven children. On his first day as a Baltimore Ravens assistant, he says, he smelled the grass and the sweat, and his eyes welled up behind his sunglasses.

“He cries a lot,” says Kim Singletary, his wife of 25 years. “I know it shatters the perceptions. …”

Mike Singletary has had an eventful and multifaceted life, we hope you’ll set aside some time to read all about it in the Sunday Chronicle.

UPDATE ON INJURIES: Packers center Scott Wells is officially listed as “Probable” and his possible replacement, Evan Dietrich-Smith appeared on the injury report Friday with a sprained ankle and is listed as “questionable.” For the 49ers, Takeo Spikes is questionable (hamstring) and Joe Staley (knee) and Nate Clements (shoulder) are out.